HISPANIC FILMMAKERS COME TOGETHER TO BRING THEIR STORIES TO A GLOBAL STAGE WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THEIR COMPANY EXILIUM AND THEIR FIRST COMPLETED FILM, VANDAL.

Filmmakers Jose Daniel Freixas and Tony Gonzalez have joined to form Exilium, an international production company that will cater to the pursuit of diverse content that is to be shared among all distribution platforms. Exilium will focus on developing film, television, and digital content, all sharing the same narrative of giving the audience stories from a minority perspective. The pair named their company Exililum, which is latin for ‘exiled’, in honor of their cuban heritage.

The filmmakers are currently in completion of their first movie under the banner, “Vandal”. Based on personal stories rooted in his upbringing in Miami, “Vandal” unveils the curtain on the underground world of graffiti through the eyes of artists that are viewed as vandals to the rest of society. The film stars up and coming talent Daniel Zovatto, Beau Knapp, Otmara Marrero, Juan Pablo Raba, and acting icon, Richard Schiff. Co-Written and produced by Tony Gonzalez and Executive Produced by heavyweight, Rob Weiss, “Vandal” showcases the “Magic City” in a way that has yet to been seen in cinema and delivers an authentic drama about art, love, and war against the backdrop of a beautiful, gritty Miami that Freixas lived and captured.

Freixas and Gonzalez joined forces to achieve a common goal…To tell stories about their culture…their history…their community. With that focus in mind, they collaborated in bringing one of the infamous characters in Cuban history to life. “The Corporation” based on the extraordinary life of the “Godfather of the Cuban Mafia” Jose Miguel Battle Sr, became one of the most active bidding wars from studios in recent memory. After two days of heavy bidding, Exilium found its home with Paramount Studios and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way winning the bid, partnering with Frexias and Gonzalez to tell the story of the Cuban Godfather with Academy Award winning Benicio Del Toro to star.

THE CORPORATION is a unique and true American gangster story that has never been fully told. The true story of The Cuban Mafia. The leader of ‘The Corporation’ Jose Miguel Battle, Sr. was known as ‘The Godfather’. He had been President Batista’s bag man, bringing him his cut from the gambling casinos when the Mafia ran Cuba. Battle escaped to the States where he and other Cubans were trained by the CIA to invade the country at the ill-fated Bay of Pigs. The Godfather came out of that debacle as a certified hero to many Cuban-Americans. The core of the gang had been trained as a unit, and together formed The Corporation. They started out running the popular numbers racket,
known as ‘bolita’, but soon moved on to money laundering and murder.

Along with Freixas and Gonzalez, the film will be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson, along with Anrew Rona and Alex Heinemann of the Picture Company.

Freixas and Gonzalez collaborated with New York Times best-selling author TJ English, to write the novel that the film will be based on. Already breaking records for pre-sales, English’ highly anticipated book is set to be released nationwide on March 20, 2018 by William Morrow.

When asked about the goal for Exilium for the future, Freixas passionately said, “We strongly believe that our culture and community’s time has come for their stories to be as much at the forefront of modern day filmmaking as any other culture. We don’t discriminate against other ethnicities, and in fact champion those stories, but we will be a force to support Hispanics in the entertainment industry both in front, behind and intrinsically involved in the content we make.”